


To the Damsels, Run

by Norickayer



Series: Postcards from Elsewhere: A Collection of Young Avengers one-shots [2]
Category: Runaways (Comics), Young Avengers
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Gen, The one where the Young Avengers have the Runaways backstories
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-09
Updated: 2015-03-09
Packaged: 2018-03-17 01:30:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,320
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3510158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Norickayer/pseuds/Norickayer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Scenes from a world where the Young Avengers we know and love are not teenage superheroes, trying to keep New York safe from evil. Instead</p><p>they're Runaways.</p>
            </blockquote>





	To the Damsels, Run

“My star of David is not a magical cloaking device. It’s a religious symbol.”

“Then how come you can’t take it off?” David asked calmly.

“Of course he can take it off,” Kate scoffed, crossing her arms. “Right Billy?”

Billy fidgeted.

“What do you mean you can’t take it off?” Eli demanded. “Is it magnetized or something?”

“ _No_ ,” Billy replied, “The clasp is rusted or something, I’m not sure. But it was my grandfather’s, so I figured- I mean I didn’t want to break it-“

“Just take it off,” David told Billy. “You can always replace the clasp.”

“No. Look, maybe Kate has a magic wand and Eli’s got a dinosaur, but my parents are just actors! I don’t have to break a family heirloom to prove that to you!”

“Okay, okay,” David said, hands up. “Fine. I get it. Family is important. Maybe it’s better to just honor them and not dig up skeletons.”

Billy looked at his friends. Kate looked uncertain, which was a sign of the apocalypse. Kate always seemed so confident before, but then again, they hadn’t known their parents were murderers before.

“…fine,” Billy growled. “But if you’re wrong, I'm gunna-“

The other teenagers never found out what Billy might have done, because David was _right_.

The silver chain snapped, but Billy caught the pendant before it could hit the ground.

The others weren’t looking at the necklace.

They were looking at Billy, who shone like a neon light in the dim living room of the Dean house.

“Oh my _God_.” Kate covered her mouth with her hand.

“You’re- I don’t even know what you are!” Eli stared.

David just smiled. It wasn’t his ‘I know more than you’ smirk this time, no. This was joyful, a smile of simple excitement and happiness of sharing a moment with friends.

“What am I?” Billy said in wonder.

“Well for one thing, you’re floating,” David replied.

“An alien?” Kate suggested.

“A magic… thing?” Eli guessed.

Billy stared at his hands, enthralled by the way light seemed to be coming from under his skin. His eyes traced the undulating color, the moving gradient of yellow and blue and pink. He was reminded of Tommy’s old lava lamp, before it fell over and set fire to the carpet.

“Oh no,” Billy realized. “ _Tommy_.”

David hesitated. More interested in Billy’s new powers, none of his friends noticed.

“He’s… probably fine,” David reassured him. “He’s off at military school, right? Your parents can’t get to him without going through a lot of paperwork and authorities.”

“I thought he was at military school,” Billy said slowly. “But if my parents lied about this… I haven’t heard from him since he left almost a year ago. They said- it was supposed to be part of the immersion or something. And the Pride said they were giving up their seats in Paradise for their children.”

“You’re the only siblings in our group,” Kate added with trepidation.

“You think the deal only included one of you,” Eli realized.

“And if I’m here, it must have been me,” Billy finished.

David held back a sigh. “Well then, let’s find your brother.”

-

“If my parents are really time travelers, I can see why they’d want to wipe out humanity,” Eli said once.

The others were used to his myopia by this point.

But, Kate thought, if they were going to be superheroes, someone ought to defend humanity, right?

“Why’s that?” she asked tiredly.

Eli gave her a look.

“Do you know how I got my last name?” Eli asked after a moment.

Kate thought about this. She thought about Eli’s last name. Her own name came directly from her ancestors, untouched by Americanization or assimilation. The Minoru family could be traced back hundreds of years. Eli’s family-

There were few ways that black Americans got European last names, none of them good. Judging from Eli’s glare…

“It was the name of a slave holder?” She asked quietly.

Eli didn’t smile, but one side of his lip curled.

She couldn’t really argue with that.

-

“I’m not a child,” Cassie said, her feet firmly planted on the carpet. “You can’t just leave me out of this. My parents are involved, too!”

“Cassie, you’re just a kid,” Eli began, trying to soften the blow.

“And you’re just a teenager!” Cassie retorted. “Billy is only, like, a year older than me!”

Eli looked at Billy. It was true, but somehow fifteen seemed lightyears away from thirteen and a half.

“You can’t keep me out of this,” Cassie continued.

“We could try,” Eli mumbled.

“Wanna bet?” Kate pointed.

There was Bucky, the 500-pound dinosaur.

Cradled in Cassie’s arms.

“Yeah, okay,” Eli said in awe. “You come with us.”

-

The green monster was gaining. Massive bat-like wings sprouted from its back, and it soared out of the ruined building with the ease of a being half its size.

Billy watched in horror as it descended on his brother.

“Wait, beloved!”

Tommy sent a blast of solar energy at it, then another, then another, but still the Skrull continued on.

As it got closer, Billy realized it was turning to orange stone right before each impact, allowing the energy to disperse harmlessly against cold rock.

What _was_ this thing?

“Tommy, run!” he screamed, “I’ve got this!”

Billy blasted it with everything he had, one sustained blast of solar fire.

He gasped. He sweated. And finally, he was spent.

The monster remained.

Billy swallowed thickly and hoped Kate had a spell for this. Or that David would think of a plan.

Bucky the dinosaur pounced, landing on the Skrull’s back and pushing it into the dirt.

Or that. Go Eli!

“What do you _want_!” Cassie yelled, walking toward the pair of them. “Why can’t you leave us alone!”

“I’m here for the Majesdanian. Dean,” the Skrull replied. “I- I’m sorry for the damage. It’s vital that I find him.”

“Why?” Tommy demanded, landing nearby and letting his energy go dormant.

The Skrull blinked in confusion. “There are.. two of you?”

“We’re twins,” Billy replied flatly. “It’s kind of how that works.”

The Skrull looked from one brother to the other in confusion. It was oddly endearing, the way he was so clearly out of his depth, lying in the sand with a dinosaur sitting on him. Up close, he looked awkward and young. Like them.

“My name is T’edi,” the Skrull told them. “I am betrothed to the Dean’s firstborn.”

“Uh, okay Teddy,” Eli replied, appearing from somewhere to pat Bucky’s head. “But here on Earth we don’t betroth people without their knowledge of consent.”

“Not anymore, at least,” Cassie added. “I mean, not if you’re good.”

“Just out of curiosity,” Kate began, looking entirely too amused, “Which of you is older, again?”

Both Tommy and Billy immediately pointed to each other.

Kate snorted. “Yeah, I figured.”

-

“It was _you_?” Tommy screamed. He struggled in the grasp of the Gibborim, but his power was all used up in the fight.

Just like David had planned.

Except-

“Yeah,” David said grimly. “I had to get Kate, Eli and me out of the way somehow. Easiest way to hide what I was doing was to bring everyone. Your parents were going to kill us. They were going to betray the Pride and save themselves and _their_ kids at our expense.”

“They’re trying to _destroy the world_ , David!” Kate hissed, trying to push herself up to a sitting position.

“That’s still seven people.”

David paused.

The kids who were left turned to find Billy standing in the rough-hewn entrance to the cave, a panting Eli leaning heavily on his shoulder.

“That’s seven people for six spots: my parents, Cassie’s parents, Cassie, me, and Tommy.” He looked up at his brother, held high above their heads.

“They were never going to save me,” Tommy said. He didn’t seem surprised at all. Just bitter.

“No,” David agreed. “But I am.”

-

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Hey look, I wrote a Young Avengers fic that didn't include Loki! That brings me up to, what, two?
> 
> Personally, I think David turned on the Pride at the end and saved his friends.  
> But then again, who knows?
> 
> Title from [To The Damsels, Run](http://www.songlyrics.com/julia-nunes/to-the-damsels-run-lyrics/), a song by Julia Nunes.
> 
> Oh hey, I should probably mention that Teddy is not going by Dorrek because instead of being hidden on Earth, he was fostered off to a Skrull couple. So he's unaware that he's next in line for the Skrull throne (what with all four of his parents being dead at the moment).


End file.
